Humanwire advertises on its website that pledges from donors go directly to needy refugees with “0 percent” going to operating costs. It offers itself up on its website as a one-to-one connection between donors and volunteers, promising to remove the “charity from the middle.”

But The Post revealed in September that amid delays in promised aid for refugees, the nonprofit’s bank records showed a steady stream of withdrawals from Humanwire’s accounts by Baron. Amid those withdrawals, more than 100 refugees who had been promised aid from Humanwire faced evictions and other deprivations, according to interviews with former Humanwire volunteers, workers and donors.

“Between October 2015 to present, Andrew Baron’s bank accounts have received all the donations for the Humanwire campaigns,” states an affidavit filed Thursday by Boulder Police Detective Traci Cravitz. “Despite stating that 100 percent of these donations would go to the intended families, at least $130,000 was used by Baron for his own personal expenses.”

Money from two accounts that received donations and pledges for Humanwire was diverted to Baron’s personal household checking account and used on personal expenses, Cravitz said in her affidavit. The expenses from that account ranged from restaurants, airline tickets, gas stations, grocery stores, out-of-state and out-of-country travel, children’s activities, retail stores and utility payments, according to the detective’s affidavit.

A former volunteer for Humanwire, Anna Segur, who was helping Humanwire’s campaign in Greece, brought concerns about Humanwire’s activities to the Boulder County District Attorney’s office, which prompted an investigation, according to the affidavit.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

The Alrahmoun family react with joy and excitement shortly after moving into their new apartment in Athens, after living in a refugee squat in an old school building for many months. They fled the war in Syria and have been living in refugee camps and squats for over a year, where they had little privacy and safety. Now they are applying for asylum in Greece.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

The Alrahmoun family packs all their belongings into a taxi as they move out of a refugee squat in an old school building in Athens where they were living for months.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Sara Alrahmoun, 10, helps her family move out of a refugee squat in an old school building where they were living illegally.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Hosam Alrahmoun carries luggage bags down the stairs in the squat where his family was living in an old school building. They fled the war in Syria and have been living in refugee camps and squats for over a year, where they had little privacy and safety. Now they are applying for asylum in Greece.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Hosam Al Rahmoun, with his daughters Sara, 10, left and Hala, 12, right, hold up a photo of their sponsors, Yudhisty Saridjo and her sister Maiya Kim, back in NY.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Yudhisty Saridjo and her sister Maiya Kim back in NY, have a video chat with the Alrahmouns, the family they are sponsoring.
The sisters have a small online jewelry business called Saridjo, and they donate 10% of all sales to the Tent-to-Home program to help the family.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Yudhisty Saridjo and her sister Maiya Kim back in NY, pose for a portrait before making a video chat with the Alrahmouns -the family they are sponsoring.
The sisters have a small online jewelry business called Saridjo, they donate 10% of all sales to the Humanwire Tent-to-Home program to help the family.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

The Alrahmoun sisters, Hala, 12, left and Sara, 10, right, sitting on a bed in their new apartment.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

The Alrahmoun family, Hosam and his wife Manar, with daughters Sara and Hala, wave to the camera for a group photo. They fled the war in Syria and have been living in refugee camps and squats for over a year, where they had little privacy and safety.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

The Alrahmouns arrive in their new apartment and receive keys from the landlord Nikos Vasilopoulos, center. They are now moving into an apartment, sponsored by two sisters in New York who raised money for them through Humanwire's Tent-to-Home Project.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Hosam Alrahmoun proudly shows the door key to the new apartment of their own, sponsored by two sisters in New York who raised money for them through Humanwire's Tent-to-Home Project.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Hosam Alrahmoun shakes hands and says good bye to some friends in the squat where his family was living in an old school building. They fled the war in Syria and have been living in refugee camps and squats for over a year, where they had little privacy and safety.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Hosam Alrahmoun carries luggage bags out of the squat where his family was living in an old school building in Athens. They fled the war in Syria and have been living in refugee camps and squats for over a year, where they had little privacy and safety. Now they are applying for asylum in Greece.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Refugee-related graffiti on a wall in a shopping district in Athens.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Kayra Martinez, one of the co-founders of the Tent-to-Home program, rides in an Uber while making visits with refugee families. Martinez is an American who works as an airline attendant currently living in Greece, and she has dedicated her life to refugee causes. She is on her way to visit the Alrahmouns.

Thomas E. Franklin, Special to The Denver Post

Kayra Martinez, one of the co-founders of the Tent-to-Home program, with her assistant Mahmoud Ismail, 14, a young Syrian refugee who taught himself how to speak English. She hires him to translate for her when she visits the refugee families.

“In February 2017, Anna started noticing that there were problems with the funding,” the affidavit states. “There was no money in the account or the ATM machines would say the daily withdraw limit had been reached. This did not make any sense to Anna because all the money she was attempting to take out had already been donated for specific families.”

In an interview with The Post in September, Baron, 47, acknowledged he spent aid that donors targeted for specific refugees on other needs at Humanwire, including to pay for his own needs. Redirecting the money caused shortfalls for refugees’ families this past summer when fundraising lagged and operating costs ballooned, he said in past interviews. Baron has maintained that the delays in aid were not significant and that he was working to raise operating money to stabilize the nonprofit’s finances.

On Thursday, Baron could not be immediately reached for comment. He was being held in the Boulder County jail on a $10,000 bail. Before his release, he must surrender his passport, court documents state. If released from custody he is barred from having contact with Segur or former Humanwire employee Mona Ayoub, according to the warrant for his arrest.

The Post’s reporting revealed that Baron put new caveats on Humanwire’s website in August after delays developed in promised aid to refugees. The new terms, which are much harder to find than the website promises that pledges for refugees won’t go to overhead, state that Humanwire reserves the right to use 100 percent of donations for operating costs, if necessary.

Baron in the past had some renown as a web entrepreneur. In 2004, he founded Rocketboom, an online daily video news program based in New York City, and then later Know Your Meme. He said in past interviews that he took some of the money from Humanwire, which he founded about two years ago, to help him deal with his own financial stresses and as a form of salary. But the salary was never authorized by the nonprofit’s board of directors and was done in a haphazard fashion, he acknowledged in past interviews with The Post. He said in interviews that any money he had generated from his past businesses had since dried up, and that he faced financial issues due to losses from day trading in stocks.

Donors and volunteers complained to The Post that money Humanwire was supposed to spend on refugees turned up missing and had not been delivered. Those issues prompted mass resignations from the nonprofit’s operations in Boulder, Greece, Turkey and Syria.

The police affidavit states that after the article in The Post, Baron tried to pressure Ayoub to keep quiet about his activities. He asked her to “sign a document that stated she would not cooperate with law enforcement unless she was legally forced to do so,” the affidavit states. She ended up talking to police and revealed to them Baron was spending Humanwire money on his own personal expenses, the affidavit adds.

Christopher N. Osher is a reporter on the investigation team at The Denver Post who has covered law enforcement, judicial and regulatory issues for the news organization. He also has reported from war zones in Africa.

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